Happy Endings
by Sazabi
Summary: We all know happy endings are only in fairy tales. A series of vignettes about the endings we didn't see.
1. Ilia

Disclaimer: I own no part of the Zelda universe.

Author's note: Please recall the experiences Ilia underwent in the game, as well as those she did not.

Every night Ilia looks out her window. Every night she can see him on his roof, an indistinct silhouette facing the distance. She knows in her heart that he faces the far-off desert, faces a memory he can't forget. As much as he can't let go, neither can she. She knows it's a lost cause, but their village is a small, insular world. Her past, present and future have always been tied to him. Only...now that she's seen that ferocity, that wild beast inside him, she's not sure that's what she wants anymore.

Maybe she'll travel. Broaden her horizons. Find something, someone else to give her heart to. But she knows the world is dangerous, has experienced it first hand. She knows the thought is a pipe dream, as fantastic as the stories her daddy told her of cities flying high in the sky full of winged folk, worlds without war or evil, tales of paupers marrying princesses. She knows that she'll likely live her whole life in their small village, maybe marry a nice man from the next village over or one of their other neighbors.

Ilia knows that in the real world, there are no happy endings. 


	2. Link

He feels empty. When he runs, he expects to feel her weight on her back. When he stalks, he expects to see her from the corner of his eye. As he draws the bowstring, he expects to hear a sarcastic tinkle, should she hold his hand, guide his arrow? Does he need her to hold the animal still, do all the work for him?

At night he climbs on to his roof and stares into the night. Somewhere far away is the broken mirror, the last passage. In that broken glass, he didn't lose a lover like everyone seems to think. Every night, contemplating on his roof, he wonders to himself, was that what it's like to have family?

Link has lived the fairy tales. He has bled the blood of heroes. He has fought epic darkness, legendary evil. But he knows that happy endings are only in fairy tales. 


	3. Zelda

Out the window, far in the distance, Zelda knows he is living an ordinary life. She knows this because it was his only request, the only gift in return for saving a kingdom, perhaps the world. He has returned to the farms and fields and she to courtly intrigue. Theirs are two separate worlds, and in truth she prefers them that way. He is a strange, fierce, proud man, noble and yet feral in a way she cannot easily comprehend. The ancient fairy tales spin a story of love between the hero and her predecessor, the star-crossed peasant knight hero and the fabled princess. But the peasant hero is yet a peasant. She is yet a princess. To marry one so far below her station...it is both distasteful and unthinkable.

Perhaps if she were like Midna, it would be possible. Wild, unfettered, with a devil-may-care attitude. If she had no need to spare a thought for the political ramifications of such a union. If she could even find it within herself to love a commoner, even one as lauded as The Hero. If she could cast away the trappings of the ruling caste. If she were not the sole heir to the throne of an unstable, insecure kingdom, one weak from overthrowing eldritch darkness. If she were not the lone safeguard against Hyrule's earthly foes. Maybe then she would live out the fairy tale ending and marry Link, living happily ever after and reigning Hyrule peacefully for the rest of their days.

However, she was not Midna. She was the only member of Hyrule's royal family. She alone was responsible for ensuring the future of Hyrule. A kingdom's fate rested on both her shoulders and her womb. Her hand was not for love, but for power and safety and prosperity. Leaving Hyrule to its own fate was as unthinkable as leaping from the highest tower of the castle.

As Zelda turned to address the next minister, she knew that was never to be. Paupers marrying princesses and ruling forever peacefully forever after were things of children's tales.

Zelda knew those silly little happy endings never happened in the real world. 


	4. Midna I

For the singular moment after Midna leaps from the window of her tower, she is free, free, oh so free. Unfettered, uncaring, laughing with delight, her face plastered with a grin of glee. The freedom of the wind rushing over her, whipping her hair about like she was back in the Light realm, bounding along the fertile green plains on the back of her trusty servant, brother, comrade, friend.

The next moment, magical bonds were lashed tightly 'round her waist, hands, whatever they could grab hold of. She was reeled back into the tower, her advisers and attendants all aflutter--

"M'lady, you"  
"The death of us m'lady"  
"Lady Midna, what would--"

Sometimes Midna longed for the life of a fairy tale princess.


	5. Ashei

AN: Looking for a beta, would mostly be dealing with flow of events rather than technical or conceptual aspects.

Ashei hated the bar's windows. She hated windows, mirrors, the surface of water, and the expensive glasses Telma kept for display purposes only behind the bar. To put it generally, Ashei hated anything in which she was reflected. She hated anything that reminded her that she was a strong, skilled, valiant woman, but that those things didn't get a woman anywhere in this world.

She was raised alone. No brothers to chop wood with her father, so she did it. No sons to hunt with her father, so she did it. No boys to learn swordsmanship from her father, no broadening stripling's shoulders to carry hay, no young men to carry their family's name and honor, so she did it. In time, Ashei could run and hunt and fight better than any boy. In time, she took the son's duty of avenging the father onto her shoulders and traveled to the castle town. In time, Zant conquered a kingdom and she joined a secret war, and in still more time she the Hero topple the tyrant and save the land.

Ashei was as strong as any man in the army. She was as skilled with a blade as any officer in the guard. She had courage enough to brave the frozen heights of Snowpeak alone. She had fought as hard as hard as many, harder than most for sovereign and soil and 'twas only fair that she be recognized for such merit. However, this is not a fair world. This is not a just world. This is a man's world, and even her Highness Zelda only sat on the throne because her father was dead.

This fate is neither right nor fair. But Ashei knows that a truly fair, truly right world is merely for the happy endings in children's tales. 


End file.
